Fireproof
by Sabbre
Summary: Sakura learns the hard way what it means to become a tool of the Shinobi world. Akatsuki!Sakura. Spoilers past manga c523.


**F I R E P R O O F**

**Chapter One****  
**

_Welcome!_

Sorry the summary is so ambiguous... it's meant to be hehe. I was watching the opening to Ghost in the Shell's second movie "Innocence" and this spawned the original idea for the fic. You may consider this as being a cousin of your Sakura is Captured by Akatsuki fic - but with an extreme catch.

Please excuse Sakura's initial attitude here. I have softened it where possible. It's just that there is a dramatic difference between her twelve-year-old and shippuuden self. Heh heh. I cringed when watching episode 3 of Naruto again! It is temporary since she will actually grow up. And will experience –quite soon!- a rather unpleasant life shift when as summarised, Sasori teaches her the hard way what it really means to be a 'tool' of the Shinobi world. In every sense of the word.

Any pairing will be secondary to the plot but the way I've planned events so far its possible this will at some point evolve into an ItaSaku or DeiSaku.

So sit back, grab a hot drink and enjoy the ride. :D

- Sabbre

* * *

"What I'm saying is that in the end, everyone is alone, right?"  
-Tenten

* * *

"Sasori."

The puppet's eyes shifted, sliding over the assembled Akatsuki to locate Pein's distorted voice. The lilac glow of the Rinnegan was a distinctive contrast against the darkness of the cave. "What of your contact's report?"

"Conclusive enough," Sasori rasped quietly. "They will remain in their base until the month's end. Orochimaru is simply avoiding us by laying low."

Kabuto had been unusually guarded when he had met with him that month, the spy adjusting his glasses in an almost apprehensive way. Sasori's trust in the double agent was tentative at best but he couldn't fault the medic's information. It was always reliable. And what's more, Kabuto was always on time.

"Eh? Looks like the snake finally let go of getting those eyes, Itachi," someone else chuckled. The amused baritone belonged to Kisame, whose eyes were a beady white brightness upon his hologram.

"It would seem so."

"Very well," Pein's lidded eyes slid to Deidara, shortly, before dismissing him and returning to Sasori. The clay-user bristled at the snub, his lips thinning as if he were about to speak. "It was expected... We will continue to observe his actions. As for your assignment, you and Deidara will return to Fire Country. Attempt to establish the same link within Konoha's ranks as you achieved in Suna. It is likely to be of use when the time comes to extract the Biju. Do not expose yourselves."

"We're professionals, yeah. Don't underestimate art!" Deidara grunted with a frown.

"Your art is precisely why I am watching you."

The blonde nin sputtered, intelligent blue eyes wide with outrage. "When that time comes for us to actually do anything about these damn Jinchuuriki I won't need any assistance. So you're welcome to watch yeah. See if I mind."

Pein remained unmoved. The amethyst of his eyes were fixed with boredom. Deidara ground his teeth together, a muscle jumping in the hollow of his jaw.

"It is too early for us to mobilize now, regardless. A watch will be kept. Dismissed."

"And what did you even need _us_ for! Little bitch!" Hidan exclaimed with indignant rage. His scythe cut a pixelated arc through the air, chest muscles bunching as he forced the weapon up with a metallic hiss. "Don't call without a reason!"

Apparently another member did not appreciate such a pointless meeting, either. There came a resounding thud as the scythe met the ground and Hidan's hologram abruptly sputtered out, connection lost.

Kisame snorted. Turning to his own partner he lifted his massive sword, Samehada, onto his shoulder. "That's our cue," he commented gruffly.

Sasori watched as each of the Akatsuki vanished, their dark holograms winking out of existence. With a low sound Deidara leapt gracefully from the stone pinnacle to land in a kneel upon the stone floor. His cloak settled around his body in a pool of fabric.

"Wait."

Sasori felt annoyance flare. What did he want of them now? The meeting had been inconsequential, a short conference purely to surmise recent endeavours and orchestrate the collective whole. Pein insisting a further audience only ever bade problems. Or more side-missions.

"You must in addition complete a side mission that Kakuzu saw fit to allocate to you this month. As treasurer, his missions are of importance in raising Akatsuki's funds; therefore you will treat this with the same respect as your primary task." Sasori did not care to mention that as of yet, he had not been given his primary task.

"As if we don't complete enough of these funding missions, yeah," Deidara grumbled. He'd turned to face their leader but refused to make the jump back up to where Sasori stood.

Pein favoured him with a glance. "It will require particular unification of your skills. After your surveillance to determine a suitable contact in Konohagakure, you are to travel north towards earth country. Avoid Iwagakure; a team is already assigned there to hunt the fourth and fifth tailed beasts. They will gather their own intelligence."

Why was it that he alone remained absent of a Biju to hunt down? Excluding Zetsu who Sasori had deduced, given the plant creature's specialised role in the organisation, would not receive such an assignment.

Pein continued on unaware of the puppeteer's thoughts. "Not far beyond the fire border into earth country, there is hidden a cache underground within the Odama Temple's lower matrix, a sanctuary for aging worshippers and pilgrims to the land. There is a festival held each year at this time, but after which you will find it quiet. The cache holds a great deal of funds in jewels as well as currency from both countries. Retrieve this."

"We always get these missions! Why don't you ever make Itachi do any of these yeah? His Jinchuuriki is the last one; he has a lot of free time, hn. Why don't you give him something to do."

"Only those deemed pure of both body and soul may enter the inner santuary. Itachi is neither."

"And like hell we are! What do you-"

"The temple," Pein interrupted, "Has walls laced with a joint entry-prevention and damage ward. It is an ancient seal, though allegedly effective at negating even high-tier robberies. Iwagakure Anbu have failed in the past to gain entry. The high priest of each generation is by all accounts born there to never leave though this is questionable- Kakuzu's contact confirmed the absence of their priest a number of times. It is more likely that a deactivation of the ward exists on the inside. You are thus to deactivate it and remove the funds from the cache. The ward itself is flexible, however, to some extent. It permits entry of children or untainted women."

He fixed them with a look, inward spiral passing from Deidara to Sasori.

The blonde nin seemed to be abstaining from an eyeroll. A muscle beneath one eye twitched periodically. He muttered a reply, with no small amount of sarcasm, "Which is why we fit the bill yeah? Innocent women. Sasori and I."

Sasori did feel this needed clarification from their leader, however it was clear Deidara's ramblings were holding them up. With a throaty growl he shot his partner a glare.

"Keeping to these laws," Pein surmised with suspicious amusement to his tone, "the high priest permits only virgin females to see to his material and physical needs, his spirit at one with his god." Deidara snorted. "In specific, virgin females no older than twelve."

At this Deidara stilled.

"Priests and their hypocrisy," Sasori grunted with disdain, brushing the matter aside as he began to strategise how best to approach the task. Dissatisfaction curled hot in his gut as he realised with some annoyance that none of his current puppets would work in his favour. "I will use my brainwashing technique."

"Your technique won't function as desired. The seal will respond to any foreign intent overlaid upon the psyche of the individual entering, inclusive of altered or erased memories."

"Then how are we to enter?" The hulking figure growled as its belly scraped sharply against granite.

"You will need to physically possess a body but not the mind, without overriding their consciousness with your own," Pein murmured and allowed Sasori to fit the pieces together.

The puppet master nodded. "Chakra wires, then. A child can enter."

Pein inclined his head. "A paralysis poison will prevent any resistance on behalf of your Trojan horse."

"This sounds like a lot of hassle, yeah," Deidara frowned and turned to Sasori.

The puppet master considered his words, "We do not know the location of the seal to deactivate it. Nor its true function. I will be blind to manipulate the puppet once past the entrance when I am outside its walls."

"It will not be necessary. You will deactivate this seal in an unorthodox manner."

"Oh?" Sasori could feel his patience growing thin.

"You will blow the temple up."

Sasori didn't bother to curb his snarl as a thrilled Deidara danced across his periphery. The fool was going to disorder the mission with his usual show of impatience and what was worse, Pein had all but encouraged it.

* * *

Later that night after he and Deidara had parted ways, Sasori made his own way through the dark twists and turns of the tunnels that had become their home. The only lights shone weakly out of the occasional torch set into the stone. Pein's knowledge of these remote caves was without equal, again providing them with a base for their monthly assemblage. Sasori's eyes narrowed. One did not accumulate such intense familiarity of fugitive land without many... many years of hiding. Pein struck him as being somewhat younger than himself. It only reminded Sasori of that subtle glance the self-labelled god would sometimes throw over his shoulder, the pauses he would ensure he made between giving orders. As if he was waiting.

But it was not his place to say.

He reminded himself of this as his battle puppet Hiruko, hauled itself through into his bedroom. The space was a simple layout, dimly aglow in the orange burn of old torches. There were four of them here, set into thick black brackets on each wall. A candle also flickered from the mahogany desk. Its flame was low and threatening to extinguish in the pool of wax. There was an unused bed to one side and a black chest with various ninja apparel. Otherwise the room was bare.

Sasori's dexterous fingers worked inside his puppet to manipulate its colossal square frame. It wasn't until he had secured the room with blood seals, poison traps and a layered Genjutsu, that the puppeteer leaned back against the wood inside his mannequin. He spared a glance to the table across the room where he knew reams of calculations and unfinished diagrams littered the desk.

With a sharp click a lock slid open and Sasori freed himself from his heavier armour, landing silently beside the collapsed puppet. He readjusted the red and black cloak on Hiruko's back so that the seam reconnected. Then he stepped over the puppet's tail to approach his research, red hair a shock of colour against the gloom.

Pale fingers splayed across the notes, black varnish tipping their ends like venom. Eyes the colour of wine engaged the topmost spread of parchment before sliding it away to the side and following the action again with the page below. Disinterestedly he cast aside each sheet of meticulous labour, all worthless in their shared inability to answer his endeavour.

What had he miscalculated? What was he missing?

An illustrative diagram, arms spread-eagled to display the chakra networks aligning the muscular structure of a human, caught his eye. Another, an autopsy file detailing delayed rigor mortis and the narcotic nature of his poisons, partially hid itself behind a chart. X-rays littered the ground, one of a hollowed femur, the marrow removed and replaced with flammable oil.

Sasori's shoulder blades shifted under the sleek Akatsuki cloak. They dipped at an angle as the redhead fell back into his chair, crossing one leg and then the other over the edge of the desk. There were no armrests so he half turned to settle one forearm flush against the counter. He gazed into the pale halo of candlelight, eyes half-lidded and quiet.

Sasori cared little for meek reserve or modesty in one's power. He was a genius, an expert in the human body. He knew in terrifying exactness how to knit a broken corpse into the likeness of an animal and then how to make it scream. He had single-handedly destroyed and reinvented the Sandaime Kazekage (in an image, he considered with amusement, far better than his previous one). He was more portable this way. His thumb bumped over the blunt tip of scroll at his hip, which contained his favourite puppet.

He worked on his human puppets while they were alive so that he could better sympathise with the very moment they felt death upon them. So that, as the vast umbra of the unknown reached out to offer them solace, he knew the precise instant to take it from them. To lock them in a dying body and deny the release of their soul, instead attaching them to the eternal frame of their corpse. Their living corpse. They were forever paused in time.

They were beautiful this way. Without end.

They were truly art.

'_Art with limitations_,' he added, hopelessness hitting hard and like a blow to his chest. Aggravated, he flicked a pale arm to one side, sending pages of notes fluttering to the cold floor.

Puppets had many advantages: They did not feel. Championing this notion was easy for the Suna nin for Sasori himself had taken that decisive step in understanding his work and had become his own model of creation- a human puppet. He did not experience sensation in the way of pressurised pain response anymore, he had no true stimuli receptors left. Sasori was aware instead, of the shifts in chakra and physical form around him. In the delicate touch of enemy chakra and the warning intent of movement. He could sense the direction of gravity, as any _living_ animal. He knew when an opponent's blow connected and when it missed. He did experience the rush of air, in a way, as a kunai slicked close to his skin. His hard, cold and very much wooden skin. Skin that would not age. Would not wither nor bow to the element of time. His body was immortal but he was still imperfect, neither truly human nor puppet. Neither dead nor alive.

He had conscious, human rationality and an equally human set of behavioural traits. He had a personality despite what Deidara ever spouted to the contrary.

As such he carried with him, from body to body and puppet to puppet, his distaste for waiting.

Waiting: an inconsequential thing for the classic human. Waiting was to be experienced and grudgingly accepted. The world did not revolve around the individual, after all.

But he did not have to like it.

To Sasori that tiny, original delay between the moment he thought, '_Now_' to the instant his puppet complied, was endless. The reaction time required for his body to comply and then for that chakra wire to tug, to reach his puppet and force a response, was aggravatingly long.

A glaring imperfection.

He didn't see himself as any God. There would be much amusement had for Sasori when Pein, in all his glory, discovered that one day he would die, very much a mortal. They were all pawns in life. Played by self-decisions made along the route without knowing the consequences. He embraced the idea and thrived. No, he was not a God, but he was a genius. He was a master at his art. He understood that however much it seemed otherwise, a puppet was only as strong as its weakest joint. Only as fast as its slowest response.

Hundreds, thousands, millions of chakra threads connected him to his wooden army. His body was honed to perfection to operate the seemingly endless supply of threads, deceivingly strong for such delicate hair-width fibres.

And each carried a weakness. Each tiny chakra thread signified a delay that was inevitable when controlling a puppet. Hundreds upon thousands of delays.

It was alot of waiting.

Controlled through his own mind there would exist no such setback, no impediment of movement. The action of his puppet would flow in total tandem to his own, a complete design. A choreography of immediate control. No lag between the intention and eventual response. No middleman. No _waiting_.

A puppet without strings was a puppet without weakness.

It was a level of agility he could not hope to reach until he overcame the dilemma that using chakra wires incurred.

He had tried, for years, to create such a marionette. The idea had lodged in its infancy before Sasori even commit his own body to the hollow ministrations that made him what he was today. A kinjutsu of his own creation he had decided, to attach his own spirit so closely to another's that he would have absolute control over their motor function. He was a genius. And somehow this was beyond him.

The papers which he had thoughtlessly knocked aside settled in a haphazard pile on the ground. His gaze roved over them lazily, tawny eyes thoughtful. With his head cocked to one side, he followed one particular sketch downwards on its descent, the pale length of his arm reaching out to snatch it from the air. It took him a few moments to realise it was not a drawing of his own but rather a page torn from a book, creased and mottled in age.

He held the thin fragment between an unblemished index finger and thumb, drinking in the sight with a slowly dawning comprehension.

All of his experimental subjects had been up to this moment, male. Matched by blood and chakra type, a masculine yang to rival its likeness. The logic of a tissue match in surgery fuelled the same rationalism that if one were to connect –and control- an individual down to their very nerve fibres and cell cycle, they would certainly need to share his own chakra's nature.

What he had never considered was trying the exact opposite. The yin to his yang in spirit and body.

A female.

And Pein had just given him the perfect opportunity to test one.

These initial stirrings of excitement had been a long time in coming, Sasori reflected as he dragged a quiet hum from his body, the deep sound vibrating through his chest to settle in his expression. His lips drew up on one side and the bright orbs of his eyes slanted a glance down at the picture in his grip, candlelight dancing in their hue. Usually set into a half smile, his lips twitched with the hint of a smirk, high eyebrows a fine straightness across the plains of his face. Sasori let the picture slide from his grasp to flutter back to the floor where he had found it.

Drawing back the chair to stand between it and the desk, the puppet master began the careful process of shuffling the disarray of his work back into a more organised manner, all the while his memory smouldering with the image in his mind's eye.

Upon the page he had dropped, a figure flew, not dissimilar from an angel. Two slender arms were thrust back into the darkness which enveloped the world. The thing's shape was aglow in the flames that poured from her shoulders. Flames that formed wings- immense and vast in their power as they burnt stars into the sky and tore a streak of eternity behind them.

* * *

"Sakura..."

"Yes Sasuke?"

"Sakura!"

W-wow. What passion! Who knew it was hiding there all along, beneath the surface of Sasuke's cool exterior?

"Yes, Sasuke!"

They would marry, they would have children with black hair and green eyes, they would be so happy together. Every day would be fun. She would cook for him in the morning and he would run his fingers through her long hair.

"I'm not going to ask again-!"

Sasuke closed the last inch of space between them and in a deep voice, breathed, "Right that's it young lady, you're grounded."

"Yes Sasuke, I'm-"

_Wait..._

_"What...?"  
_

Sakura blinked sluggishly as her vision came into focus, the odd weight of sleep dragging at her awareness. She experienced an urge to rub her eyes but ignored it in favour of grasping at the source of the sound. She inched open her eyes, fair brow pinched.

And was met with blurred green.

There existed only that brightness at first, the colour having swallowed the sky. "Where am I...?"

"Don't sass me! As soon as we get home, there will be no shopping, no seeing those girls, no sleepover and no leaving the house tonight- I mean it. Not even to train. You can think again if you're going to ignore your own mother. Do I deserve this, Sakura? What with your Genin exam tomorrow I would think you'd know better than this! You need to be mature out there to survive! Wake up _now_, please, it's time to leave."

Everything sharpened. Sakura blinked the vestiges of sleep from her eyes. With new clarity she watched the swaying leaves of an emerald canopy. Sunlight shafted through the green at regular intervals, filtering down in dust-golden streaks to the forest floor below where she lay amongst a heap of blankets and leaf litter.

"It's your own fault that you missed breakfast."

Sakura pushed herself upright, hand immediately going to her mussed hair. She watched in dazed surprise as the slim form of her mother turned to accept some package from another traveller. All around her in the forest people were packing up campsites and preparing to leave, groups which had travelled together presenting parting gifts and sharing farewells.

Several seconds elapsed by which Sakura realised she'd overslept. Her senses groggily returned. She tried to recall whether she'd just been told to pack or to eat breakfast.

"And you will eat when we get back; I won't have any more of this dietary nonsense. You are a growing woman! You will eat what I cook for you this time, is that understood, Sakura?"

Sakura rose shakily to her feet and grabbed her pack, stuffing the last few items in which her mother hadn't yet swept up. She couldn't believe she'd overslept! She had to prove herself to Sasuke at the exam tomorrow! And she needed as much time when she got home to do her hair and decide how she would wear it. Ino was sure to look beautiful... Gah! Ino? Ino was ugly.

"I see you're returning to Konohagakure, Sakura-chan?" A gruff voice startled her. Sakura zipped her bag up as she turned, folding over the beige flap to seal the equipment which stuck out awkwardly. Oh, she realised as he recognised the older civilian. He one of her mother's acquaintances.

"Hai, Hatomishi-San."

"Hm! Well, I had best be leaving; my companions and I are keen to reach our village by the eve. Safe onward travels to your own home, child. May the temple's blessings remain with you this year." Sakura nodded in thanks and the aging civilian passed around her to wish her mother farewell.

Families were rolling up tents and unplugging ground pegs, exchanging pleasantries as they prepared for the final day's trek. The original group had lessened considerably in number. Though concluded, the pilgrimage for many was not a closely homebound experience. Out those left, she and her mother included, home was still another day's journey away. Konoha and its associated satellite settlements were very far south. Earth country was no small walk. Out of her friends from the academy Sakura and her family was the only one she was aware who actually joined the group that left Konoha. Shinobi rarely partook in the civilian tradition of honouring the land spirits and were it not for being the resting site of her grandparents, Sakura thought it unlikely that her mother would insist they go each year. Neither of them relished leaving Konoha but nonetheless they made the journey each year to pay respects to the land where her grandparents had died. She'd heard that the Sandaime Hokage's grandson had attended before with an escort, as a sign of good will from the village, but Sakura hadn't seen anything resembling a ninja guard this year.

"Would you move already, Sakura!"

"I am!" She groused, shrugging the pack further up onto her shoulder. Gripping its strap tightly and sighing, the soon-to-be Kunoichi of Konoha tried to conjure images of her impressing Sasuke the next day. In one particularly vivid image she held a victory sign over the slightly-steaming remains of her blonde-haired rival.

Green eyes glittered and with a look of determination, Sakura dissapeared into the forest. She followed the retreating back of her mother through the throng of travellers.

'_Just wait and see. Tomorrow will be the best day of my new life... Shannaro!'_

_

* * *

_

At times like these, Deidara would look much more fitting as a puppet. A cold, quiet and very much _not alive_ puppet.

"How was I supposed to know he'd recognise us, yeah!"

Sasori twitched the bulk of his tail, its poisoned tip rasping quietly against the dust.

"Don't tell me you weren't going to activate the jutsu! Gate chuunin see everything! They were the perfect choice- Either one of them would have been ideal. They see who comes in and out of a village. More so than-"

"Deidara..."

"-and that toad-summoner wasn't even in fire country last I knew! Don't blame me for him showing up, yeah."

The pupils in Deidara's eyes suddenly widened, consuming the surprised blue as the clay-user leapt back and into the air, barely avoiding the attack. Sasori's tail stopped with a resounding thunk, embedded instead, into the tree that had stood behind the blonde nin. Deidara flung him a glare. "That was uncalled for, yeah."

Jiraiya had not been a factor they had taken into consideration, true, when the two nuke nin had approached Konoha's gates. The eccentric hermit was rumoured to be in lightning country. It would have been but a temporary nuisance though in which a waiting period was required to allow him to pass while they remained hidden. A temporary disruption- had Deidara not already sauntered into the village to remove one of the chuunin. It had taken two hours of pursuit before they had shaken off the persistent man.

"We will move on," Sasori acknowledged voice low and gravelly with anger. "We cannot complete this task while Konoha is aware our interference. It was poorly played, Deidara. Were it not for revealing your presence we would have been able to acquire the contact."

"Yeah, Well!" Deidara argued in defence, sweeping the blonde bangs from his face with an upset jerk. His eyes narrowed and sought out the forest behind them, fixing at the point where Konoha lay, now many miles away. Uncharacteristic tension lined the tall man's frame. It was with an unsteady breath that Deidara exhaled, air rushing out to be expelled with a huff. He let his arm drop to hang by the side of his cloak. Reluctantly he conceded with a reserved, "Yeah."

It was no apology but Sasori had not expected one. However he did not press the matter after that and the two had continued on their path.

Some hours later, when the pregnant sun dipped low in the sky and the trees glowed golden red, Deidara signalled them to halt. The metal kaleidoscope at his left eye glinted in the dying light, as a warm breeze lifted his hair from it. Sasori watched him in the pause then ensued, senses trained on any chakra signal approaching them.

What surprised him was the sheer number of very faint signals, likely civilians and a mass of them. Why they were travelling at this time was indefinite but Sasori held no desire to be intercepted. They had many days yet before they reached the cache of funds required. Further delays were unacceptable. "We will bypass them," he moved from the path and into the lengthening shadows. "There is no need to change our course; they won't sense us alongside them."

Deidara agreed with a deep hum and followed him into the trees, dipping under a branch that Sasori's hunched puppet had avoided.

* * *

"Not long now," Sakura announced with a smile. Her mother regarded her with soft eyes, brushing a hand over her daughter's pink hair before she trained her gaze ahead of them.

"We still have some hours to go, Sakura-chan. But we should reach the village before dawn. I hope a brief lack of sleep won't affect your performance in your exam too much," she apologised, noting the scandalised expression on the girl's face. "You can sleep right after it. Your bed's still made up from before we left."

"I'm going to the bathroom," Sakura suppressed a wail. She disappeared into the trees, to console her horror of appearing at the academy without sleep.

Or to urinate. Her mother wasn't quite sure.

"Don't be long, we can't really stop for a break."

"Hai!" Echoed from the trees.

Sakura stumbled briefly over the knarled root of one, catching herself with a swift hand across the bark of its trunk. It was rough and jagged beneath her palm. The colossal thing stood alone in the clearing and glancing up to its bough, Sakura noted that its leaves shone a bloody crimson in the sunset. The entire clearing was rich in hues of red, gold and orange. Stepping carefully around the protrusion Sakura took an inventory of her surroundings, appraising each shadow in the immediate forest for its bathroom-like quality.

"Not much of a choice I guess," she consoled herself grim with resign, not desperate to go but recognising the need to at some point if they were to travel for hours more. Better to go now while it was still light.

Sakura approached the darker region of trees. She glanced back once to ensure no one else followed.

She met its outskirts with a guiding hand raised, the milky underside of her nails glowing pale in the sunset. What little light vanished once she entered this part of forest and squeezed through the twin trunks of two closely-entwined giants. It was colder here without the fading sunlight.

Behind her she could still see the clearing, autumn-shaded and smouldering in the sun's waning flame. _Warning colours_ she thought dazedly, before dispelling her unexpected fear with a reprimanding scowl. Goosebumps pinched at the skin on her arms but she continued into the shadows, groping blindly at the foliage.

A twig, somewhere close by her, snapped.

Sakura jumped and swung into the blackness of the trees, startled breathing hitched. Ahead and around her the air loomed stagnant, the forest unmoving. She felt suddenly cold, acutely aware of all the fine hairs on the back of her neck. The trees in their dim world remained silent though, revealing nothing. She swallowed past a lump in her throat, wide green eyes locked onto the swaying shadows.

She relaxed slowly, exhaling in a hesitant breath to relieve the tightness in her chest. The act of breathing seemed unatural when faced with the silence that clung to the air. But there was nothing there. No creature waiting beyond the gloom. She was glad for the shudder that racked her frame but squashed the ridiculous urge to laugh. Her muscles were still tight as the cold wind brushed too sharply against her collar bone.

Sakura took a slightly tense step backwards. Her bladder could wait like any normal person for a couple hours. She swallowed again and cleared her throat. Which was exactly when he stepped out in front of her, his eyes pale and arctic, glinting from his face.

The unforgiving plain of his chest filled her vision, closing the distance. A surprised gasp tore from her throat as Sakura stumbled back with a jolt, arm swiping out in a desperate line behind her. A sense of vertigo hit hard and everything caught suddenly in a motion blur that had the sky turning with bright stormy swirls. She fell back with spots bursting behind her eyes, landing awkwardly on her arm through the gap of trees. The grass met her with dizzying abruptness.

Sakura would have been embaressed for her fright-induced clumsiness, had her breathing not torn from her lungs in great handfuls of air- would have rose immediately and apologised, had the figure that followed her out not glared with such uncaring stillness. The words lodged in her throat and died there.

The man had a mane of platinum hair, fire-bright in its intensity. The sunlight haloed a topknot that trailed to form the slashing length of his ponytail. Sakura was reminded of Ino, absurdly, as the frowning figure watched her with sharp cobalt eyes. One eye was shielded by a mat of blonde hair. And he was no civilian, for an unrecognised forehead protector adorned his smooth pale forehead. It was slashed clean through. Almost more noticeable than his appearance though was his attire. The cloak hung long and black from his broad shoulders in a glistening fall of cloth, cascading down all the way to brush at the grass. Red clouds adorned its design, a sinister contrast that did nothing to put her at ease.

"Che, it's just a girl" he bit out with annoyance. Sakura held her own thoughts on the subject and wisely decided to say nothing, swallowing thickly as she crawled back a foot to stand.

"Then it's just as well we came in this direction..."

Into the clearing a second figure came, collapsing into itself before rising again, moving against all odds of its weight. It's body slid across the ground, trailing damp grooves in the ground behind. It wore a cloak too, identical to the one the blonde man wore. Only when he drew alongside the other did she close her mouth, warning bells trilling loud and clear in her head. The thick aura of danger which surrounded the pair was unmistakable.

"She's going to alert the rest of those sheep that we're here yeah..."

"She's not."

Sakura drew breath to scream, indeed wondering why she hadn't thought to do so already. But before any air could be summoned to her lungs she swallowed a choke, as the hunched creature's _tail_ suddenly lashed out with its glittering tip. It reached her faster than she could think to move. Faster than any kunai she'd ever seen move in their academy drills.

But this wasn't the academy and Iruka wasn't there to deflect its path. Without obstruction the blade scored an immediate line through the flesh on her upper arm, tugging through the skin like butter, a wet splatter. She cried out, fast clutching the rip.

A memory came to her past the acidic bile that rose to her mouth. Of yawning through homework that wouldn't end. Odd. It was due in the next day and was evidently unable to be procrastinated upon any longer.

Poisons.

It had been on _poisons_.

She realised sluggishly as her movements slowed and her arm bled cold that '_Drugs in Combat_' wasn't going to help her when she needed it most.

'Reading was never much use... was it?' A quiet voice whispered. Inner Sakura drew back from her as the pain in her arm dampened. Her alternate persona left her with a quiet apology, vanishing in a silence that echoed for many moments after. Like a pebble dropped down into a well.

She also knew that the rushing sound wasn't water, couldn't be water. She knew it, but couldn't form thoughts to describe it any other way. The world tilted all at once, trees streaking past her eyes in long blurs. Sakura landed on her knees and numbness spread through her limbs faster than she could comprehend. Her muscles trembled, thighs giving way. And suddenly the ground rose up to meet her face.

"You just saved us some trouble silly girl," the one who had injured her, growled. "And for that, I suppose I must thank you."

She wondered how a person's voice could be so deep. It jarred her dying nerves like nails on a chalkboard. The other made a sound of amusement but his black sandals was all she could see from the ground.

"She looks young enough, hmm." He commented as he approached her still form. Sakura felt terrified indignation swell up inside of her as his toes met her shoulder. She fell onto her back, eyes fixed at the darkening sky. "Think she'll work, yeah?"

"We will use one of the temple children if she is already too old. But I doubt we will require another." He entered her field of vision and Sakura's heart skipped over an irregular beat. The dark skin of the creature's face was stretched tightly over his skull. Some heavy cloth clung to his mouth and hung in a large V of fabric. It brushed against her chin and Sakura was glad in that moment she couldn't feel.

There was a great sound of something metallic, almost akin to that of a fishing line being reeled in. For the second time that day she watched as the scorpion-like tail shot to her. It halted an inch before her face, reflecting the sun and hovering in hypnotising mockery before her nose. Sakura thought she must have been crying, because everything was blurry again; the sky rippled like stained glass. There was a sound of a lock being clicked open and the same tail shot out in three directions. Extensions formed from it where there had been none before. They flashed to either side of her vision and like a prize from an arcade machine, Sakura was lifted high into the air. Her stomach lurched as she gained a new appreciation of the ground. Seeing it upside-down gave her the distinct desire to be back upon it. Instead she hung there suspended, head lolled back and legs dangling ineffectively over the metal claw. Sakura felt like a doll. An inanimate and alltogether useless doll.

The blonde man was smirking. Sakura thought as darkness crept around her eyes, that he couldn't be that much older her. A late teen, perhaps. How could people turn rogue so early...? "Now neither of us need to hang around looking for a girl. That's good yeah because I know how you are about waiting..." he laughed, a short bark of it that was responded to by a growl.

"I will wait for the necessity of a mission, Deidara. I merely do not like to be kept waiting, as I would not have others wait upon my behalf."

"Yeah, yeah. Let's go, anyway, before someone notices this girl missing."

"Indeed... We have a week's travel and have delayed enough."

xxxxxx

Sakura would remember the sky that evening: wet and shimmering like a mirage, glowing as bright as blood upon water.

They left.

* * *

I left my body laying somewhere  
In the sands of time

- Kyrptonite, Three Doors Down

* * *

**Author's Note.**

Yeah. No one notices Zetsu.

Please tell me what you thought of this chapter! :S I really want to improve for the next one.

Anonymous reviews are welcome and any really make my day! ^_^

Until next time!

- Sabbre


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